With our state in the third year of drought, Governor Schwarzenegger
ran a veto gambit aimed at breaking the legislative logjam on
a sorely needed water deal to rebuild our crumbling state water
system. The Governor clearly set the stakes: “I’m
fighting to rebuild our crumbling water system…. Water is
jobs for California, water is food, water is our future, water
is our economy.”

Weeks of private “Big Five” sessions followed. What
has emerged from State Senate leaders is SB7X1 (by Senate President
Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg, D-Sacramento.) Key aspects of the bill
include: strict mandatory conservation and groundwater management
programs; guidelines on how delta-area local governments will
participate in management of the delta; and the overall repeal
of the current primary statute governing the delta (the California
Bay-Delta Authority Act) with the shifting of vital authority
on delta policy and development decisions to an independent, seven-member
state agency (the Delta Stewardship Council). Inside “buzz”
indicates that the most problematic issues regarding the bill
will be funding and the creation of the Delta Stewardship Council.

A joint hearing of the Senate and Assembly water committees
on the bill began on Monday, October 26. And, that is also when
water reform legislation requesting billions of dollars in bonds
to repair levees and build new dams could come forward.

In addressing the Southern California Water Committee last week,
Governor Schwarzenegger remained optimistic and unwavering stating
that: “A water system designed to serve 18 million people
is collapsing under the pressure of 38 million people. The Delta
is dying. Federal judges, as we all know, are turning off the
pumps. Farmers can’t plant crops. Building permits are being
denied. Jobs are being lost and lives are being destroyed….
[W]e have areas where there’s 40 percent-plus unemployment
rate and people are standing in the food line. So this is really
outrageous. The water package that we’re negotiating is
big and it is comprehensive. We will finally build - if the legislators
agree and come to an agreement, and we put it on the ballot and
it is approved by the people - we will build the peripheral canal.
We will build more above and below the ground water storage. We
will fix the Delta and its ecosystem. And we will require conservation
and groundwater monitoring and we will clean, also, the groundwater.”

Federal legislative influences continue to impact the situation.
Congressman George Miller (D-CA, 7th Dist.) tried to gain passage
of a water recycling bill for the greater San Francisco Bay Area.
Along with the Speaker of the House, he has refused to allow San
Joaquin Valley water legislation to be debated unless Congress
considers spending tens of millions of dollars on water recycling
programs that he wants. If Miller truly wants an efficient water
recycling project for his district, he should look to our own
state-of-the-art Orange County Groundwater Replenishment System
(GWRS).

Since the system began operating 22 months ago, it has taken
15 billion gallons of highly treated sewer water supplied by the
OC Sanitation District and purified it into 10.5 billion gallons
of new water. That’s enough water to fill 142 Angel Stadiums
in Anaheim. Through an OC Sanitation District and OC Water District
partnership, highly treated sewer water that would have been released
back into the ocean is now being recycled. Approximately half
of this new water is used to recharge the groundwater basin. Twenty-five
percent of it is pumped 13 miles up along the Santa Ana River
into ponds, where it slowly percolates into the ground. The other
twenty-five percent goes to Huntington Beach and Fountain Valley,
where it is injected into wells that build up a fresh water barrier
and keep salty ocean water from seeping inland.

So, for now, the water deal waiting plan continues. Are our
state lawmakers on the verge of an historic bipartisan comprehensive
water deal vote? The countdown continues.